Sunset Daydream
by xLilim
Summary: AU: A collection of unrelated All I Wanted specials written for all occasions. NarutoOC, SasukeOC
1. Burnt Toast

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Naruto|Hatsue

 **Word Count** : 100

 **Rating** : K+

 **Author's Comment** : I miss these two.

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on November 24, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Burnt Toast**

Hatsue woke up to the smell of burnt toast.

Naruto apologized when she entered the kitchen scratching the back of her head. He dropped the black bread onto a plate, laughed, and sheepish, said, "I just left them in for a minute."

She joined him in the kitchen, offering to help with breakfast. She set aside the burnt toast to stick new bread slices into the toaster and leaned against the counter, watching Naruto scramble eggs in a frying pan.

She reached out to touch his arm.

He smiled. He was real.

She sighed.

The toast burned a second time.


	2. Soul Bond

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): None

 **Word Count** : 196

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : I just want to write more about Sasuke and Hatsue together in the facility...because...why not.

If you want to see any couple or character in certain situations from this story, let me know. I'm taking suggestions! If I feel inspired by a suggestion or feel that I can make it work, I'll write them!

 _ **Originally posted on December 2, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Soul Bond**

"Sasuke."

Hatsue approaches him. He sits isolated in the fourth-floor laboratory surrounded by empty long tables and he keeps his gaze on his lap. He shifts in the stool when her hand touches his arm.

She retracts, throat dry, and her hands join in front of her. "Can an equilibrium bond be broken?"

"What are you afraid of? You barely understand what it is."

Her chest tightens. She curls her hands into fists. She feels the anger, hot, on the tip of her tongue, but she forces it back down, to the center of her stomach.

She turns hard enough for the sole of her shoes to squeak and stomps to the entrance of the laboratory, but whirls around before leaving. "Why do you do this?"

Sasuke stands, there's a tension in his body that electrifies the ambience, and she feels the flare of his anger stab into her. "It's going to be broken."

She understands that his ire isn't directed at her, but it hurts, like a small pinch in her chest. "How?"

He finally looks at her. "If they can keep us here with this ease, you think the impossible isn't possible for them?"


	3. Linger

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Sasuke|Hatsue

 **Word Count** : 400

 **Rating** : T

 **Author's Comment** : This is like my _All I Wanted_ guilty pleasure ship.

Given that this is the last contribution to the 30DoSF for this story, I'm going to be marking this story as "Completed." That said, feel free to continue to follow it for possible future updates.

 _ **Originally posted on December 10, 2017 for 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on at my wordpress, linked available in my profile, or read the vague explanation under the announcements header on my profile page.**_

* * *

 **Linger**

Tenryū pairs were rare. Not all were born together. Not all shared a blood relation. Long ago, the connection between them went beyond an Equilibrium Bond and many tenryū pairs opted to marry their other halves. Most did it to produce more pairs. That originated the terms "sister half" and "brother half." It converged more tenryū families together, though the practice had never been foreign as tenryū bred within the dragon species as other species refused to mingle with their kind for many years.

Sometimes, Sasuke remembered ancient human marital practices, specifically among royalty, and it frustrated him to have these thoughts. Equilibrium bonds were a possibility for every species from Otherworld, even halflings were capable of it. He had discovered his fate in middle school. He said nothing. Those things never interested him. It required a level of romance he didn't feel able of emulating honestly. The future was too far at the time to consider.

After his and Hatsue's capture, separation made him uncomfortable. He understood his Equilibrium bond had no place with him in this prison, but his rejection of it wasn't the reason for the changes he felt through ten years of confinement with Hatsue. He justified it by blaming the experiments and the medication. He repeated back his knowledge of tenryū pairs to feel centered. Their connection intensified because they were the last of their kind. A survival thing.

But as the facility population dwindled down to two. Him and her. He noticed. His eyes lingering one second too long on her in quieter hours, his irritation growing beyond an annoying itch to a pounding in his head watching Kabuto engage her in too friendly conversation, and the sting he felt because of the certainty in her heart even with a clouded mind. He buried it as it surfaced, shoved it as deep as it needed to become repressed.

It never lasted more than an hour or two. Even without thinking of it, the emotion lingering. It hung between them after every session and he poured his all to his anger until it was enough to overshadow the fondness underneath. Still, he healed her wounds before attempting at his own.

Sasuke brushed his fingers against her bruised cheek and he remembered always the softness of her skin whenever he stared at the tips of his fingers. If he could burn the feeling away, he would.


	4. Seasons

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Naruto/Hatsue

 **Word Count** : 456

 **Author's Comment** : I love using seasons as a theme in writing, so it might be reoccurring here or there.

 _ **Originally posted on December 6, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Seasons_

Hatsue enjoys the transitions between seasons. She feels them coming, though not quite as keenly as Naruto does. He experiences them in a whole different way and she senses them with him.

Winter enters his body like a gust of cold wind on naked flesh and shudders through him as though his spine were being strung like a guitar. He keeps the heater running in their apartment. Likes it toasty. The mattress is heated and he curls up like a ball just before he goes to sleep. And when the temperature drops under zero, he wakes up a fox.

Spring blooms in him a new energy. He moves like a river. Sunrise becomes a noiseless alarm that creeps in from under the drapes. Sunlight spreads its arms as far as they reach to cast away the shadows that cling to the apartment.

"I like to see the shimmer in your scales when you sleep," he confesses and brushes his fingers against her flushed cheek. He is the only reason she likes them at all—the serpentine-like scales that bloom across her skin when her guard drops.

"Do you?" she asks.

He grins. "They're really beautiful."

Summer strikes in waves. Their instincts are often in synch. They say that happens with bonded couples. They don't go into heat. There has never been any scientific proof to dispute it, but there are days when the heat peaks. The drapes are drawn shut and the air conditioner is on blast, but they can feel the heat of the walls when they are pressed against them. Their bodies snaked into one, skin perspired, his thrusts are slow and rhythmic, and their mouths are never far from each other. They aren't able to control themselves. They're drawn like magnets, quivering to meet. Sometimes they make it to bed. Most times they wrap around each other where they meet.

They spend more time naked on these days.

Autumn emerges as if from a slumber. The leaves are slow to discolor, but as they turn from green to orange to brown, she observes the stray thoughts that slip through his mind as his expression changes. Shock turns him in her direction—of course, she just found out herself—and joy burst from him with a loud laugh.

"Are you sure?" he asks, excited.

Hatsue nods. "They're healthy."

Naruto picks her up and takes her for a spin. He holds her tight when he sets her back on her feet. He places a hand against her lower abdomen and closes his eyes, as if he is sure to catch one of the babies' thoughts, but even while he doesn't, he smiles.

This is the happiest she's felt him and that never changes going forward.


	5. Dragon Magnetism

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Sasuke/Hatsue

 **Word Count** : 537

 **Author's Comment** : My "what if" guilty pleasure couple is in the house! This is a sort of AU-ish version of All I Wanted in where the main cast was all raised inside the facility together, the scientist knowing what kind of Otherworld species they were.

 _ **Originally posted on December 12, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Dragon Magnetism_

Everyone likes Sasuke. Hatsue feels the adoration radiating off the girls that flock around him in the facility playground, but she notices his indifference the most. She avoids him. The adults want them to be together. They're the last tenryū—the only dragons within a facility full of mid-rank kitsune, inugami, and oni.

It is never explained why they can never be in different rooms, but she finds out at the same time as a new group of hires arrive. She searches the gargantuan room for the back of his spiked head and her stomach twists and turns like someone wrung it like a wet washcloth. She realizes her temperature rises as she attempts to carry a conversation with Ino, a sage child with more magic than a lot of demons combined, but she keeps stumbling over words.

She shares Sasuke's unrest from the other side of the facility building. Her power has never stretched so far and it made her bones ache as though there was an invisible rope bound around them jerking her around. She grows restless to the point of tears. Her body hurts. Her limbs numb.

She reaches the door and pounds on it, but the adults are quick to pull her from the entrance, guiding her attention elsewhere towards the jungle gym where the other children are playing.

Ino is at her side in an instant and holds her hand in both of her own. She stares at her with her teal-colored eyes full of worry and tells her, "You're going to be okay."

Hatsue nods, but her breathing has thinned and her lungs aren't getting enough air. She panics and starts crying out for the head doctor, Tsunade, but she never comes.

"Just let her back inside!" shouts Ino. "She needs to see a doctor!"

It feels like a hundred years pass before Hatsue is ushered inside the building and led through a narrow hallway, the same one taken back to the girls' dormitory. Her heart steadies and after she turns the corner, she pauses. Sasuke stands on the other end and his eyes are as wide as hers.

The scientists sit the down in an observation lab where they are surrounded by an assortment of potted plants, green as emeralds and beginning to flower under the bright sunlight pouring in from the ground to ceiling windows. The scientists exchange notes, whisper among themselves, and eye them through the glass windows.

Hatsue looks at Sasuke. Everyone likes him. They think he's cool. She doesn't feel that way. The knot in her chest is different from everyone else and she knows that he has one just like hers in him.

Years later, Tsunade summons her to her office and gives the knot a name that Hatsue had long been aware of. "You're Fated Mates. It's in your biology. You're drawn to each other like magnets, more so because you are also tenryū pairs. Your souls are connected, your powers are connected, your fates are aligned. You belong to him and he to you. Do you understand what a special bond we have in our hands? It's fascinating."

Hatsue's throat dries. "What does that mean?"

"You're in love. You've always been in love."


	6. Old Tapes

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ):

 **Word Count** :

 **Author's Comment** :

 _ **Originally posted on December 17, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

 _ **I am taking suggestions! If you want to see any couple or character from the story in certain situations, let me know. If I feel inspired by the idea, I will write them! You can PM me, leave a review, or comment on the 30DoSF WordPress page.**_

* * *

 _Old Tapes_

"There used to be a box of old tapes in the basement of the school building," Hatsue said, moving a white piece across the checkered black and white surface of the gameboard. "Did you know about it?"

Sasuke, dressed in a similar facility-issued outfit—scratchy oversized t-shirt and grey sweatpants, analyzed the remaining pieces on the board deciding on his next move without so much as regarding her words with much interest. This went as far as it went for recreational activities for them, at least those that didn't involve physical exercises tied to any experimentation.

"The basement or the tapes?" asked Sasuke, moving his next piece.

She frowned at the game. He trapped her. "Well, now that you're asking, both?"

"It was used for storage. That's about all I know. It was all junk."

"I liked going down there on my own," she continued. "I found them in a box with a cassette player. The tapes were all numbered, there were six of them. Do you know what they were?"

Sasuke stared at her. "Are you going to make your move any time soon or continue to distract me?" He grinned. "It won't make a difference. I'm one move away from checkmate."

Hatsue gasped, affronted. "You think this is a distraction. I'm offended."

"What was in the tapes?"

"They were mixtapes. All of them songs from overseas. I was thinking about them, I don't know any of the bands or even the names of the songs anymore, but I can remember some of the words. I want to listen to them again."

"Are they still down there in the basement?" asked Sasuke.

"That's where I left them, but it's been almost a decade, so I doubt they'd be in the same place."

Sasuke shrugged. "Let's go back there. Show me all this overseas music you're always humming."

Hatsue nodded. She figured out a new strategy as their conversation went on and made her move, leaving him a little surprised when his next move did not offer him the victory he boasted.

"Don't act smug."

She laughed. "I'm just excited about this. It's a promise, okay?"


	7. Laundry Day

**Story** : All I Wanted

 **Pairing** ( **s** ): Naruto/Hatsue

 **Word Count** : 147

 **Author's Comment** : The theme for this year is babies. Obviously.

 _ **Originally posted on December 28, 2018 for my 30 Days of Short Fiction. For more information on 30DoSF, please refer to the pinned entry on my WordPress, xlilim – link available in my profile.**_

* * *

 _Laundry Day_

Hatsue runs around the apartment, opening doors and closets, until she nearly rams into Naruto as he is carrying a hamper of folded clothes. She steps back.

"I can't find them. The twins." Hatsue's eyes water. "I'm a horrible mother. I told you this was a bad idea. I can't even keep track of our own kids."

Naruto laughs.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Take a breath," he says, setting the hamper down, "Come with me."

He guides her to the laundry room and she finally sees them. Their two fox cubs curled up inside a hamper stuffed with a blanket. She exhales. She ran around the entire apartment and didn't think to look in here.

She looks to Naruto and he hugs her. "See, everything's okay. They just like to sleep on the blankets after they get out of the dryer."

She feels embarrassed, but at ease.


End file.
